UNRESTRICTED SUPPORT $20 MILLION

General and current-use funds support a wide range of activities: from short-term grants that allow students to continue their studies, to infrastructure investments required for online learning, to vital support for basic needs such as food and housing, to financial assistance for students to undertake an internship opportunity.

Throughout the Meet the Moment™ campaign, the Salem State Annual Fund will play a critical role in transforming unexpected opportunities into reality and responding to pressing needs.

rigorous academic experience. Unrestricted giving provides students with access to tools that replicate realworld working environments from the Bloomberg Terminals used in the Bertolon School of Business to high-quality lab equipment. It supports co-curricular programs from the Anime Club to the Student Veteran Organization that cultivate their creativity and leadership skills, as well as their intellect. Unrestricted giving also provides the fuel needed to launch new clubs, activities and programs that reflect changes in society and the job market.

Unrestricted giving to the annual fund plays a critical role in directly supporting our students by supplementing financial aid, supporting the Student Emergency Fund, helping homeless students secure housing, and fueling our efforts around inclusive excellence and civic engagement, which are designed to ensure everyone can feel an authentic sense of belonging and engagement within our community.

Decisive Moments

For Virginia Lyons ’16, choosing to attend Salem State was a life-changing moment. “I loved it,” she recalls. “The class sizes were manageable, and I connected to the community through my participation in student groups.”

That participation included co-founding Black, Brown and Proud, an organization focused on educating members of the Salem State community about the challenges faced by students of color. “Unrestricted funding plays a key role in creating initiatives and programs for students and alumni, such as financial literacy programs and alumni-student mentoring programs that help participants advance their personal and career success,” she explains.

As a senior consultant at Ernst & Young, Virginia remains committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in her workplace. She also serves on the board of the Salem State Foundation. “The increased emphasis we’ve seen on addressing equity-related issues is a moment that’s long overdue,” she notes. “We need to make a commitment, an investment, and put our money behind our mission to develop a clear plan of action for advancing DEI at Salem State over the longer term.”

“As an intern at the Salem State inclusive excellence office, my work focused on making our campus safer for students in the LGBTQ community. The more unrestricted funding we can access, the more programs we can develop and resources we can devote to support underrepresented student populations.”

EVAN KRAVETTE ’22G Master of Social Work

“The Center for Civic Engagement helped me find my passion and my voice. With programming that helps students build community, become leaders and make a difference in the world, the Center is at the heart of Salem State’s service-oriented mission. I’m grateful to be part of it.”

LIZABETH DAVIS ’23

History major, civic engagement fellow

“The Massachusetts housing pilot program and the Student Emergency Fund helped me overcome a really bad time in my life by providing housing, food and grocery store gift cards. I’m happy with where I’m headed now, and I have Salem State to thank for making that possible.”

ISABEL COLLAZO ’21

Psychology major, participant in the Massachusetts Student Housing Security Pilot

Our faculty members and academic departments go to great lengths to supplement coursework with out-of-class and off-campus experiences from a biology student participating in a faculty research project to a business student presenting at an academic conference to a theatre student visiting Broadway. These programs and offerings are often made possible by unrestricted academic support for our colleges in the form of our schools and colleges funds. Similarly, unrestricted support for our President’s Fund allows university leadership to invest in new and emerging opportunities that enhance student success, such as the Vikings Success Collaborative, which will streamline student services and more effectively connect students with the resources they need to achieve their goals.

SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES FUNDS $11 MILLION

Each of our academic deans is responsible for directing their respective fund to best support their faculty and students. These uses include aid for student career development, including certifications and internship expenses; funding to secure and maintain accreditation; and faculty research fellowships especially in fields like business, where grants and government funding are rarely available for academic research.

• Bertolon School of Business Fund

• College of Arts and Sciences Fund

• Frederick E. Berry Library Fund

• Maguire Meservey College of Health and Human Services Fund

• School of Continuing and Professional Studies Fund

• McKeown School of Education Fund

• School of Graduate Studies Fund

• School of Social Work Fund

• School of Nursing Fund

THE PRESIDENT’S FUND $1 MILLION

In collaboration with leaders from across the university, President Keenan takes a 50,000-foot view of Salem State’s funding needs when distributing resources from the President’s Fund. In the past, the President’s Fund has provided much needed backing for the inclusive excellence office, the Student Emergency Fund and student financial assistance.

“A lot of people in the workforce need to finish their bachelor’s to move forward in their careers. Unrestricted funds help us run courses that continuing education students need and to subsidize students’ completion. That’s a win for our students and regional employers alike.”

“Having flexible resources that enable people of color to come together and talk about their experiences and how those very same experiences can profoundly impact the lives of their students is a powerful thing.”

STEVEN THURSTON OLIVER, P h D Associate professor of secondary and higher education

“At the Bertolon School, students and faculty members are engaged in applied research to tackle contemporary business challenges from digital marketing and human resources practices to financial planning. This is exceptional handson training that students can put to use immediately in their work places after graduation. Philanthropy is critical to help ensure they can take advantage of these opportunities and to provide faculty with the resources, equipment and time they need to undertake meaningful research endeavors.”

Rewarding Research

For Professor Linda Coleman, a faculty member in the marketing and decision sciences department at the Bertolon School of Business, conducting original research is one of the most rewarding parts of her job. “I love to dig deeply into the things my students and I are curious about whether that’s learning how Starbucks built a successful international business or exploring the social trends in tattoo culture across different societies.”

To ensure she and her colleagues can discover new knowledge through novel research, each school and college at the university has its own fund that is fueled by donor support a fact for which Linda is deeply grateful. “I can’t tell you how much it helps to have philanthropic support for our research it enables us to live up to our potential as scholars as well as teachers.”

“Research projects are also a win-win for the students who participate,” Linda adds. “They gain valuable experience that supplements their coursework, and they have the extra benefit of putting academic publications on their resume.” Research opportunities are valuable, but they are not always accessible especially for students who need to work while in school. “We need support for students to get involved in research,” Linda explains. “We also need to help defray the cost of attending events so students can travel to present the papers they worked on, too.”